I stayed for 2 nights at the 4 star Hilton Leeds City in April 2010 on a complimentary basis. The hotel is close to the rail station, it takes less than five minutes to walk from the station to the hotel.  It also takes less than five minutes to walk to the canal basin at Granary Wharf.

Hilton Leeds City

I stayed in a twin deluxe room on the 12th floor.  I could hear very little exterior noise but the double glazing looked quite old with a bit of mould around the edges of the metal window frames.

View from room 1221 on the 12th floor

The room had a very comfortable office chair, a small glass table and a low slung chair.There was a door inside my room enabling interconnection to the room next door.  However this meant that I could hear every word spoken by the guy in the room next door when he was on the phone.  Thank goodness he was pretty quiet but if you had someone with TV at full volume or people talking loudly in the adjacent room you could be disturbed a lot.

The bathroom was pretty small with lovely toiletries and a short, deep bath with an over bath shower and a shower curtain. After my bath I thought I was going to be marooned there. The rail on the wall was too high up to reach and I couldn’t get a firm grip underfoot. Due to lack of manoeuvring space it was almost impossible for me to do my usual trick of turning around to get on my knees to climb out of the bath.

If you want to connect to the internet the service is provided by ibahn and it costs £15 for 24 hours access either by wifi or wired connection. I think this charge is too high,  considering I pay £15 a month for 02 mobile broadband access which includes wifi at many hotspots.   Other hotels groups such as City Inn offer guests free wired and wireless internet connection. I believe this type of  service is expected by an increasing number of guests.

Breakfast was excellent, a really wide choice of cooked items, fresh fruit, cold meats, smoked salmon, yoghurts, bread and pastries.  It was great to be in a hotel breakfast restaurant where the tables weren’t crammed together.  In so many hotels you feel like you are listening in on the conversation at adjacent tables and that you’ll knock someone’s breakfast over when you get up and down to go to the buffet.

In summary the hotel is located in a central location for access to the rail station, city centre shops, sightseeing and access to waterfront, the rooms are nicely furnished and breakfast is one of the best I’ve had in a UK hotel chain served in pleasant, spacious surroundings.  On the downside, the bathrooms are very small, internet connection is expensive and if you are allocated a room with an interconnecting door, you may be disturbed by the guest next door.

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